U.K.'s Lord Mountbatten's bid to sell jets to India

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50 years ago: U.K.'s bid to sell jets to India | Deccan Chronicle

New Delhi: Britain is understood to have decided to make a final bid to sell India a squadron of its lightning jet fighters and a few submarines belonging to British Navy.

Lord Mountbatten, who is due to visit India towards the end of this month, is expected, by informed sou-rces, to use his good offices to persuade India to buy British jets and submarines.

It is no more a secret that Lord Mountbatten played a crucial role in the final decision taken by India about five years ago to acquire HMS "Hercules" as Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier.

The Three choices Indian Air Force, at present, has a choice of three fighters aircraft: British Lightning, French Mirage and Soviet MIG. All the three jets are said to belong to same category.
 

W.G.Ewald

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The English Electric Lightning is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft of the Cold War era, noted for its great speed. It is the only all-British Mach 2 fighter aircraft and was the first aircraft in the world capable of supercruise. The Lightning was renowned for its capabilities as an interceptor; pilots commonly described it as "being saddled to a skyrocket".[1] Following English Electric's integration into the unified British Aircraft Corporation, the aircraft was marketed as the BAC Lightning.

The Lightning was prominently used by the Royal Air Force RAF and the Royal Saudi Air Force. The aircraft was a regular performer at airshows, it is one of the highest-performance aircraft ever used in formation aerobatics.[citation needed] Following retirement in the late 1980s, many of the remaining aircraft became museum exhibits; until 2010, three examples were kept flying at "Thunder City" in Cape Town, South Africa. In September 2008, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers conferred on the Lightning its "Engineering Heritage Award" at a ceremony at BAE Systems' site at Warton Aerodrome.[2]
English Electric Lightning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 
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